Charles Pierce: …. That was about as bad a speech as you ever will see from a candidate who probably just wrapped up the nomination. …. At its heart, though, Romney’s speech featured some sub-Santorumish sarcasm directed at the president for having been a law professor while Willard was fighting his way up every inch of the hard road that leads from opulent wealth to incalculable wealth.

…. There was also the requisite sneering at community organizing. Let us consider, then, the community in which the president once organized. This is what I found out about it when I went and looked at it in 2008:

Obama also worked in the Altgeld Gardens, a housing development built in 1945 atop an ecological hellspout where two thousand families lived on an old landfill and hard by fifty-three different sites that had been designated as “toxic” by one study of the area.

Altgeld Gardens was built on the bones of old steel mills and factories, and atop the waste dumps and landfills that serviced them. And, when they built the projects there, they filled them full of asbestos. That poisoned neighborhood was a perfect product of the “freedom” that Romney talks about when he talks about an unregulated economy. Barack Obama went there to organize the people who were living on that deadly ground because The Market couldn’t have cared less about them, and the various governments allowed The Market not to care and, so, did not care either. The kids with the asthma, they weren’t free. The kids who developed the renal disease, they weren’t free. The people in all the cancer clusters, they weren’t free ….. in the 1980’s, when the president was working for peanuts trying to get some sort of justice for the people that The Market had chosen to poison, Willard Romney was making millions with Bain Capital…..

Michael Tomasky: Illinois was a breeze for Mitt Romney, and yes, numerically, maybe it’s getting close to done. But state by state, this still isn’t over. Rick Santorum remains likely to win Louisiana, which is next. Then comes Wisconsin on April 3. Santorum is still about 15 points ahead there right now. And it looks like Santorum has taken Missouri – again. So while Illinois probably means that Romney is on his way to the nomination, and maybe on his way to 1,144 delegates, it’s also a fact that Santorum isn’t going anywhere….

Good morning TOD. The most ridiculous message from Mitten’s attack on POTUS for having been an community organizer and college prof, is the fact that he’s trying to convince himself that the sitting President does not have the experience to be President.

Indeed – that’s a stupid argument against someone who’s already doing the job, quite successfully, I might add. Plus, the presidency is an position responsible for executing the legislation and presiding over government and state. If the only rules that govern that role are the Constitution, then President Obama is uniquely qualified to be in the role, specifically when compared to any of the GOP candidates, none of whom were Constitutional law professors (not sure what Gingrich taught at the little college he taught at, but he’s not a real candidate).

It shows how out of touch he is. There are many more community organizers in this country than there are rich white men. Mitten’s is the most disgusting politician I have ever seen, an arrogant jackass.

While Mittens went to convert the sunbathers on the Riviera. Let’s talk about character, Mittens. Let’s talk about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and becoming a success. Let’s talk about starting at home plate and actually hitting a home run and running around each and every base to win your run, rather than standing on your famous daddy’s shoulders and saying you hit a triple.

The way Romney keeps bleeding money in an effort to beat his opponents is pathetic. He outspent Santorum 5 to 1 and still had the lowest turn out in 70 years? And someone on his team still hasn’t been fired?

I fell asleep last night watching The Ed Show (replay) and woke up to hear Chuck Todd say that the turnout was the same as the 2008 election give or take 10,000. Was the GOP turnout in Illinois for McCain low too?

How could this guy even command an audience during a State of the Union speech. I listened to his speech last night and could not stand to listen to him. He is horrible. Of course, we all know he lies, but that voice — so tinny and empty of emotion. Yuk.

TURN OUT IS LOW BECAUSE THE REPUBS. DON’T LIKE THE FIELD. THEY WILL WAIT TO SEE WHO WINS…IF IT’S MITT…EVANGELICALS WILL NOT VOTE IN THE GENERAL ELECTION. OTHERS WILL HOLD THEIR NOSE AND HIT THE MACHINE!..STINKY…STINKY!

Not that it really matters, but Jovie keeps asking :), and I was curious also—– I cannot get President Obama’s vote total in Illinois yesterday from any source. Since only about 3 Chicagoans showed up to vote—–about—–it will hardly be significant. But that number is not available anywhere, which is irritating to me. I only found one sentence on one political/news site which stated, “There were more votes cast in the Democratic primary for president than in the Republican primary”—–but no numbers. Weird. There was a 22.8% Illinois turnout, the lowest since WWII, at least. Illinois voters were not fired up about this “exciting”—ha!—-Willard/Lil Ricky match-up.
And Willard was disgusting with his mockery of Obama’s resume’ as a community organizer and law professor. And so were the supporters behind him who laughed derisively. Horrible mean girl types.

I don’t know PBO’s statewide totals. I thought I heard 212,000+ but I don’t remember where I heard it. If there weren’t down ticket races that applied to your district I’m assuming Dems didn’t vote. Hey, they didn’t care to vote in Chicago and there were a good number of important, if uninteresting votes to cast.

Okay, disregard the numbers I read directly off the Chicago Board of Elections website I’ve been posting — evidently they included two or three precincts or something. The turnout in Chicago was 25%.

I apologize. I kept refreshing the site and those were the numbers I was getting until just now when totals are completely different.

I’m really sorry for misinformation.

Someone has to explain to me how biliions of dollars are moved around every day through credit cards, etc. How you can buy soup at the grocery store and have it spit out a coupon for some other soup. And votes can’t be counted. I don’t understand, I really don’t.

Just ignore them when they laugh. He who laughs last, laughs best. And we will be laughing come November when the votes are tallied. I look at it like this: Community Leader/ Law Professor that taught Constitutional Law vs Rich young man that inherited millions that never had to live with or help the poor. I will take the former anytime.

Too beautiful of a morning to go negative, but just a quick observation. Saw 5 mins. of Romney’s “win” (as if he could ever be a winner) speech last night. You know when you act out hate, your looks even change. He had deep ugly circles under his deep ugly eyes, looked haggard, almost like he was ready to keel over, and I think I could even spot his nose was growing while he was daring to use the name “Obama” in his little chat with the jerks that follow him.

Okay, I got that out – whew!

Off to think of the brightness and goodness that will be Obama-Biden re-election night of 2012. Go, Tammy Duckworth!

Since this gop primary began, Romney has gotten uglier. You are not imagining that. He is so consumed with hate and anger, first at voters for not seeing that he is “inevitable,” but mostly towards President Obama. That hate and anger has to go somewhere so it shows in his physical appearance.

Was watching Robin Meade and her guest on HLN … and they were both saying how bad Romney and Santorum (the haters) (my words, not theirs) were looking and sounding last night (faces drawn, look sick, voices scratchy). They said it was because of how tiresome these campaign gets. We know it’s because they have all that hate and anger inside.

Hmmm … not sure I remember seeing President Obama looking bad during the entire ’08 campaign!

Morning everyone…. My tuppence here: none of these Less-Than-Noble “candidates” are working at a job, never mind that PBO is handling the most critical and demanding work in the WHOLE WORLD. And looks mighty fine while doing so. Love fills him up, the love of the people all around the world lifts him to a level these other characters cannot fathom. The love he shares with his wife and family keeps him whole an strong. JO’B, I know you are right on about the hate and anger, people will run from that eventually.

Hey guys this is David Corn’s appearance on Morning Joe talking about his very good book on President Obama called “Showdown” It details the behind the scenes of the OBL raid and how PBO used the last 6 months of 2011 and the debt ceiling to mop the floor with the GOP.

Not going to give them a hit. If someone comes on here and break it down for me I will read it. Not going to buy the book either. Every Tom Dick and Harry is writing a book about the President. What are they going to do in 2017?

Top of the morning mates. What’s the spin gonna be today? How many earthquakes has the President caused overnight? Is the planet still on it’s axis? How much did the national debt increase due to Malia’s trip to Mexico. And why doesn’t the President fly commercial?

I need to repost this because I’ve been dead wrong on the numbers I’ve been posting:

Okay, disregard the numbers I read directly off the Chicago Board of Elections website I’ve been posting — evidently they included two or three precincts or something. The turnout in Chicago was 25%.

I apologize. I kept refreshing the site and those were the numbers I was getting until just now when totals are completely different.

I’m really sorry for misinformation.

Someone has to explain to me how biliions of dollars are moved around every day through credit cards, etc. How you can buy soup at the grocery store and have it spit out a coupon for some other soup. And votes can’t be counted. I don’t understand, I really don’t.

PBO won 100% of the precincts reporting. the discrepancy between the vote totals is because they don’t have exact numbers from a few remaining precincts, but it appears to be unanimous.

In Chicago:

260,000 Dem’s voted
47,000 Repubs voted

Again, I’m really really sorry for the many times I posted the wrong information. If I keep this up I’m going to get a job offer from the Romney campaign!

Nothing to apologize for. We appreciate you doing the researh for us. So more Democrats voted than Republicans? Can you imagine the figures come November. If we all go out and vote there is no way they can win the election.

It’s only about Dem’s coming out to vote. It’s always been about Dem’s coming out to vote.

The idiocy of the media — there was a discussion last night that “Romney did well with independents.” the ‘independents’ who were interested in taking a Republican ballot, you jackasses! You think Chicagoans who are ‘independent’ bothered to vote (25% turnout), and if they were interested in voting, they would have taken a Democratic ballot because of the down ticket races. ‘Independent’ doesn’t mean ‘independent’. It means you believe the last lie you were told because you’re too busy standing in line to buy a new iPad than pay attention to what’s happening with your country.

A ridiculous waste of air time. And I’m talking about the air between all of their ears.

Tell the truth. A zazillion years ago, I considered myself and “independent”. Why? Because I didn’t have a clue about the issues and was not interested enough to find out. All one need do is question a so-called independent about policy issues and watch the blank look come across their face.

Yeah. That’s what I mean. When everything was sort of in the center, I can see that neither party distinguished itself that much from the other party. I remember considering voting for moderate Illinois Republicans. It was the impeachment of Bill Clinton that changed it for me. And let’s remember — the change from working together started with one man — Newt Gingrich. When I saw a party lurch toward personal destruction, using the careful tools of the Constitution, to destroy their enemy, I pretty much vowed that I would never vote for a Republican. And to think, those were mild days compared to what we have now.

Don’t paint all independents that broadly. I am an independent who votes mostly democratic, have traditionally split my votes. Went mostly Dem a couple years ago. Now I vote all Dem due to the crazies.But, I maintain an independent status, except in our primaries when I need to register Dem.

Not all to be sure and I certainly have the utmost respect for you and your principled right to identify yourself as independent. There is a difference between not wanting to affiliate with a particular party and those who think that there is no difference between the parties, in 2012. Those are low information voters who do make up the majority of ‘independents’ now and that wasn’t true a dozen years ago. We see in voting patterns that these voters swing pretty much with the last shiny object. Because after the Bush years and what has happened to PBO, you either understand that there is a stark choice or you do not understand. In these critical times, I don’t see alleged moderates fighting for the Republican party. Olympia Snowe can bemoan the state of affairs and John McCain can decry the anti-contraception issue, just a few weeks after voting for the Blunt Amendment. If you hold to the Republican brand and vote with the crazies, then you own that brand. The indies who will support PBO one day and Mittens the next are not serious, well-informed voters. they are not independents in the way that you are an independent. And I will be more careful to not paint with a broad brush in the future.

Crossroads GPS is following the Presidents trip, going on air with an ad blaming the President for gas prices.
In the States he will be going to, that is the Market they bought!
This is what Rove is going to do, follow the President in every State with negative ads.

For someone who has done nothing but plan on running for President for the last decade and doesn’t have to worry about spending any pesky time making a living, he is a horrible candidate. The lack of imagination in those ads is staggering. for someone who lies as well as he does, it’s truly astonishing.

Of course this is the guy who fired the one successful debate coach he had because the debate coach was getting some credit.

If anyone thinks there is anything moderate or human about Mittens, they are delusional. Of all the RWNJ’s out there, he is the one who would be told by his handlers to push the red button and Willard wouldn’t lose a moment’s sleep about it. He is soulless.

Yes. And seriously, “He voted to raise his own pay”? This is what you waste millions on?

Although the narrative is all about the Romney spending, IL was going to pick the alleged moderate over the “I don’t care about unemployment as long as I’m free to hold on to my health care and deny health care to everyone else” candidate. We were the only state in the rust belt that held off a tea party governor in 2010. we elected dumb Mark Kirk as senator but he allegedly is ‘moderate’ (unless you pay attention to his voting record until 4 months before any election when he finds his ‘moderation’ again).

Okay, for those who have been wondering about vote totals. Romney’s latest figure, according to the Chicago Tribune, is 429,533, with total votes in the Republican Presidential Primary being just over 910,000.

Looking at the numbers just for the Dem districts where there were contested primaries (many weren’t) the total Dem votes were 542,413. Giving PBO at leats 90% of those he gets 488,171 which is well over what Romney had. And considering the number of votes in non-contested primaries but where people woudl still vote for other issues, he probably went well over 600,000. Considering all the emphasis was on the Republican Primary, I think PBO’s totals would be pretty damn good.

I would venture to say that downstate there were precious few people choosing a Democratic ballot unless the particular congressional race was important to them. I’m thinking that PBO pulled 500,000+ statewide but I sure would like actual documentation.

Even if we’re going to be conservative and give PBO 85% of the total, that’s 461,000. More Dem’s voted for PBO uncontested than in the highly touted ‘must-win’ Republican primary for Romney.

ILRepublican primary means nothing for the GE except to pad Romney’s delegate count. And I’m hearing serious noises this morning about the party rallying around Romney, even from tea party organizations. Jeb Bush endorsed Romney today and said it’s time to coalesce.

My county in Illinois had a paltry 19% turnout yesterday, compared to a 31% turnout in the ’08 primary. The county has a long Repub reputation, but PBO won a narrow victory here in ’08 surprising a lot of people. Demographics have shifted somewhat over the years—-an increasing influx from Chgo etc. But the low turnout here in this still Repub dominated county is another sign of the lack of enthusiasm for the Repub candidates.

As if they really think the Dems don’t have everything on video. ANJd if he actually tells the truth that he didn;t really mean those things and just said them to win the primaries, 50% of those that did vote for him and90% of the rest of the Republicans will just not vote. Yeah, those numbers are too high, but doing so won;t gain him back independents and will cost him more conservative voters.

I disagree japa. The rethug base will turn out in GE regard;less of who or how the candidate is. The establishment will to see that by means of riling them, up and their own innate hatred of left. And of course the corporate media will play a large role in that turnout too.

This play is for the fucking indies, the clueless maroons, who make up their mind in October end and thus swing the election one way or the other.

President Obama is making strong inroads among independents. As recently as last month, the President was trailing a Republican challenger among independent voters (Santorum 44%, Obama 42%). Today, he leads Romney by 8 points (48% to 40%) and Santorum by 11 (50% to 39%) among independents in swing states.

These improvements appear to be fueled by a slowly improving political climate for the incumbent. President Obama’s approval rating continues to improve, and is now close to even at 46% approve to 50% disapprove. This represents a 5-point improvement over the last six months, compared to a 3-point decline in disapproval.
Additionally, a plurality (39%) now believes that the economy is improving, while 35% say it’s getting worse, and nearly a quarter say it’s staying the same.

Going to see the president!! Going to see the president!! Well, least I hope to see him in the “beast.” The freeway is directly in my backyard and they are closing it down so the motorcade can pass by. I’m heading to a little casino about 8 miles from me and hang out in the parking lot and hopefully take some good pictures. The casino is right next to the highway he’s going to pass on his way to a solar plant in Boulder City, NV which they’ll be shutting down entrance in to the entire for as least 3 hours. Bet that’s gonna stick in the teabaggers craw. Ha! Good luck to me!! ;)

Jeb Bush calling all Republican to unite to defeat this President is ludicrous. I can’t wait for President Obama to start campaigning to remind the American people the mess George Bush left this country in and what it’s taking to get us out of it. Man, this is a fight I’m so itching to have. These Republicans think it will be a cake walk to defeating our President, but they have another thing coming. WE WILL NOT GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT, AND FIGHT WE MUST!!